Tags – WebProNewshttp://www.webpronews.com
Breaking News in Tech, Search, Social, & BusinessThu, 17 Aug 2017 16:10:04 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.1Kickstarter Unveils New #Tags to Track Project Trendshttp://www.webpronews.com/kickstarter-unveils-new-tags-to-track-project-trends-2013-01/
Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:40:20 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=213280Kickstarter wants to make it easier for potential backers to find specific types of projects and browse projects pertaining to certain themes. They also want to be able to display which types of projects are trending on the site at ... Read More

]]>Kickstarter wants to make it easier for potential backers to find specific types of projects and browse projects pertaining to certain themes. They also want to be able to display which types of projects are trending on the site at any given time.

That's why they've just introduced hashtags on their discover page.

"Over time, we've noticed certain themes and trends running through the projects on Kickstarter — some for a week, some for years. Tags give us a new way to share these patterns with everyone.

Tags aren't tethered to a specific category. Instead they reflect a common philosophy (#Civic), shared subject matter (#Science), themes (#Zombies), accolades (#Sundance), and a bunch of other stuff too. We'll be adding and rotating tags constantly as new trends pop up throughout the site. These will be listed in the sidebar of the Discover page," says Kickstarter.

So these tags are different, and in a way much more specific than categories like "music" "film" or "games."

You can check out the trending #tags on the Kickstarter Discover page. People looking to browse projects can now do so by location, category, tag, and other groupings like "recently launched" and "most funded."

Kickstarter says that you can help make the #tags better. If you see a type of project that's trending or want your project that you just launched to be tagged, just send them a tweet.

]]>Foursquare Lets You Tag Facebook Friends, Even If They Don't Use Foursquarehttp://www.webpronews.com/foursquare-lets-you-tag-facebook-friends-even-if-they-dont-use-foursquare-2012-11/
Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:33:22 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=201492On Monday, Foursquare updated their apps with a new rating system for locations. Now, when you find a business using the explore feature, it will have a number rating (from 1-10) attached. According to the company, this type of rating ... Read More

]]>On Monday, Foursquare updated their apps with a new rating system for locations. Now, when you find a business using the explore feature, it will have a number rating (from 1-10) attached. According to the company, this type of rating is determined through various signals including tips, likes, popularity, loyalty, and more. They say that it's a much better rating method than star ratings, which appear on many other local search services.

Today, they're announcing another feature that shipped with that update. Now, you can tag Facebook friends in your check-in updates even if they aren't on Foursquare using the "add friend" icon at the bottom left corner of the text box.

"With Monday’s iOS update, you can now mention Facebook friends who aren’t on Foursquare in your check-ins. Just tap the add friend icon when you’re checking in and scroll down to find them. Your friends will get a notification on Facebook, and will be tagged in the Facebook post if you choose to share it there," says Foursquare.

This function is currently only available on iOS, but Foursquare says that the Android update is on its way.

]]>Google News Introduces Standout Contenthttp://www.webpronews.com/google-news-introduces-standout-content-2011-09/
Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:32:13 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=76890Leveraging Google News for traffic and pageviews is a strategy that's been around as the popularity of Google News began to increase. For instance, an article from SEOMoz discussed the approach, and it was written in 2006. Now, thanks to ... Read More

]]>Leveraging Google News for traffic and pageviews is a strategy that's been around as the popularity of Google News began to increase. For instance, an article from SEOMoz discussed the approach, and it was written in 2006. Now, thanks to a simple HTML tag adjustment, you can point Google towards the content you think will standout on Google's news reel.

Much like the "nofollow" tag, the "standout" tag belongs to the HTML rel category, and much like it suggests, it's intended for the most pop-worthy content, although, there's nothing to stop people from putting the rel="standout" tag on all of their content. One would guess Google is prepared for standout tag spam, and the inclusion of the tag doesn't guarantee first page status on Google News. According to the Google News blog, the tag exists as a suggestion:

If you put the tag in the HTML header of one of your articles, Google News may show [emphasis added] the article with a ‘Featured’ label on the Google News homepage and News Search results.

The blog entry also suggests using the standout tag -- which looks like this: -- while linking to content being referenced as well as on your own:

Standout Content tags work best when news publishers recognize not just their own quality content, but also the original journalistic contributions of others when your stories draw from the standout efforts of other publications. Linking out to other sites is well recognized as a best practice on the web, and we believe that citing others’ standout content is important for earning trust as you also promote your own standout work.

While that stanza contains a "we believe" in reference to trust-earning, it's clear Google is relying on this trust when it comes to picking which content is actually standout worthy. If you run a content spam site, one that survived the Panda purge, and you're making liberal use of the standout tag, it's doubtful it will make much of a difference in how the content is perceived, especially as Google refines the weight it gives links containing the tag in question.

In what looks like an effort to proactively address standout tag spam, Google suggests news organization only use the tag once per day:

At this point, we ask news organizations to use the Standout tag to cite their own content at most seven times in each calendar week. If a site exceeds that limit, it may find that its tags are less recognized, or ignored altogether. A news organization may cite standout stories from other news sources any number of times each week.

In other words, don't spam with the standout tag, otherwise, we'll ignore you; but please, use it when you're linking to quality content.

Pretty simple, right?

With that in mind, how long will it be before we see the first "Standout Tag Spam on Google News" article? Before the end of the coming week? Once again, for those who may have missed it, the syntax for the standout tag is as follows:

]]>Facebook Tweaks @ Mentionshttp://www.webpronews.com/facebook-tweaks-mentions-2011-05/
Fri, 06 May 2011 14:20:24 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=64846The @ mention of friends or pages on Facebook has been a success since it debuted in 2009. People inherently like to include others in their communications, and tagging a friend is the surest way to make sure that they ... Read More

]]>The @ mention of friends or pages on Facebook has been a success since it debuted in 2009. People inherently like to include others in their communications, and tagging a friend is the surest way to make sure that they see the post.

But the problem with mentions is that they can feel clunky, and can unnecessarily lengthen a post. Nobody wants to produce a clunky, long post - much less read one. I have plenty of friends with long names, or those who use their middle names, or those that make up middle names (you know who you are). No offense, but if I want to mention you in my status update, I don't want "Jessica Danger Womanofyourdreams Johnson" taking up real estate in my post.

To that end, Facebook is now allowing the shortening of @ mentions within posts. My long named friend above can be shortened to "Jessica Johnson" or even "Jessica." They will still be tagged in the post, linked, and notified. Here's how it works in practice:

Any friend's name can be shortened to names that are adjacent, meaning my good friend "Karl Thomas Wetzel" above could be shortened to "Karl," "Wetzel," "Karl Thomas," or "Thomas Wetzel," but not "Karl Wetzel." You can also only shorten friend's tags, not events, groups, pages etc. Unfortunately, that means that every time I feel like @RIDING IN ON A UNICORN AND STABBING SOMEONE IN THE FACE, it's going to be a long post.

Another @ mention feature that was being tested is now rolling out live for everyone. You don't need to use the @ sign to tag friends. If you start typing a friends name with a capital letter, Facebook will drop down the tag menu after 5 letters for a person's name longer than 5 letters, and after the completion of their name for those with less characters.

Like I've said before, it's the little things, Facebook. And this will help to shorten and de-clunkify tagged posts. And anytime we can de-clunkify Facebook, that's a good thing.

]]>Google Talks Local Search Relevance Factorshttp://www.webpronews.com/google-talks-local-search-relevance-factors-2010-12/
Fri, 03 Dec 2010 20:02:22 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=56630Google is placing a great deal of emphasis on local in its search results these days. In fact in many cases, it would appear to significantly reduce the importance of ranking in the regular organic results.

Google talked a little about how local search ranking works today in a blog post on its Lat Long Blog, which included the below video of Google Product Manager Jeremy Sussman discussing the basics.

"Say you're in Union Square in New York City, and you want to find a nearby coffee shop, so you go to Google and type in 'coffee shops in Union Square, NYC'. You'll find a list of just what you typed in - local coffee shops near Union Square with all the basic information you would expect to find, such as name, address, and phone number, and if they exist, you'll also find reviews, ratings, and links to other relevant resources," he explains. "These organic listings are free to both the user and the business. We give you the best results we can find."

"Now, there are a variety of relevance factors Google uses to match or answer your search query, in this case, locating coffee shops near Union Square. Three of the key factors are: relevance, prominence, and distance," he continues. "Relevance is showing you only coffee shops and not unrelated businesses such as retailers, dry cleaners, and so on. Prominence is determined by how well known or prominent certain coffee shops are, based on sources across the web. Distance is easy. We calculate how far each coffee shop is from Union Square. And if you don't specify Union Square in your search, we'll show you coffee shops based on your general location."

Google recently launched Hotp

ot, a social recommendation engine for local search. You can read more about that here. Hotpot listings can show up anywhere business listings show up in Google search results.

"Do the Hotpot ratings and review impact order and ranking of the local businesses you see on Google? Absolutely," says Sussman. "That's the whole point...if you signed in to post ratings and reviews and to receive personalized recommendations in your search results. We do this to deliver more relevant search results and provide a more tailored experience based on your preferences."

In case you were wondering whether or not claiming a page will influence ranking, Sussman says, "A business claiming a Place Page does not result in preferential treatment. Of course more detailed information about your business helps us do a better job connecting people to the businesses they're searching for."

Finally, he makes it clear that neither Tags nor Boost (a couple of Google's local advertising options) influence local search ranking or where listings appear in Google or Google Maps results. Google does say, however, that the ranking of Boost ads in the 'Ads' section of the Google.com and Google Maps results pages is based on relevance and quality factors.